Grad for Easton and July
Easton's grad trip was to Niagara Falls. Easton isn't big on carrying a camera but he did manage to take a few photos, however, I mostly relied on the photos that the teachers sent to the parents and the stories he told me after he arrived back home. His grad trip was a very packed day trip to Niagara Falls. They started by boarding a coach bus early in the morning at the school which Easton said was fantastic as far as buses go, and when they arrived they were off to the butterfly conservatory where he said butterflies were landing on them and it was a casual and low key start to the day. I have never been to the butterfly conservatory in Niagara Falls but he said if you were looking for something easy to do while there, this was a good fit. After their tour at the conservatory they then had a viewing of horseshoe falls, just a walk by, and he said they were at a bit of a distance as they walked to the Skylon Tower where they had reservations for lunch with a view. Here he said the food was good and he had enough food to make sure his growing grade 8 body felt full enough for the afternoon adventures. He also said the view was good and he would recommend eating there.
From there it was up the sky wheel where they took in more of the city from high up. I think this was just a nice way to see the sights and probably keep the class contained for the teachers. But the real fun came when they had a choice of cosmic coaster or ghost blasters, then dinosaur adventure mini golf, followed by a choice of the wax museum or zombie attack, with a midway including 50 tokens. The class bonded and it was a nice trip to just spend time together before they head off to highschool. Only 5 kids from Easton's class are headed to his highschool based on boundaries (unless some kids move over the summer), so this was quite a trip to take in the friendships he has made since kindergarten. It was a busy but fun day and I am thankful he had this experience!
Grad
About a month before grad we went to look for a suit for Easton to wear to grad. He knew what he wanted. A classic black suit, white shirt, black shoes, black tie. While we rented all of this, we treated him to his first store bought tie. The rest of the suit he was likely to grow out of within days. He is seriously growing so fast these days.
With a little help from dad to tie his new tie on graduation night, I think he felt really grown up, and he definitely looked so grown up. He was so handsome with his new hair cut too, his first time at a barber. Somehow he just looked a little bit older, more mature, ready for highschool.
With a milestone to celebrate, gifts were given. He was excited to see that he was getting tickets to see his first concert. AJR, a band that he has been enjoying for years. He was so excited. This would also be Hadley's first concert as it was in Detroit, so she would be coming with us. We all knew the songs, although this isn't Hadley's favourite band, she still loved the experience! But Easton's joy in this gift was certainly amazing to see. Her and Easton enjoyed the show in their new purple concert t-shirts and were ALL smiles. It was a gift to me also to be there for this first concert experience.
Speaking of gifts, there was also a book called: Oh, the Places You'll Go! Where I have had all of his homeroom teachers sign the book since kindergarten to grade 8 with a little something special for him to read. He is sentimental, so this was also quite special to him.
Back to the grad ceremony... It was beautiful to see the boys walk back to where they would line up to walk into their grad together, where they would walk into the room with photos on display at the front of the stage of all the grads when they were young and what they looked like now. Easton put up a photo of him in a hard hat, which is what he wore when he registered for kindergarten as we were building the house at the time.
Mrs. Peel the principal, Mrs. Hall the Vice Principal, Ms. Burns the grade 8 teacher, and Mr. Cartwright the science and math teacher, Mr. Robertson the gym teacher, Mr. Cooper the music teacher and Ms. Colantoni the French teacher all addressed the graduating class and it was a bit emotional. Bavi gave a valedictorian address.
Easton walked across the stage, received his graduation certificate and was also awarded the 4 A's award. This is for Attitude: a minimum of 30 hours of volunteering where he watched over students during the lunch hour with his friend Lucas for the entire year. He also needed to obtain all G's in the learning skills. Then Academics: where he needed to achieve 80% or greater average in Language, Math, French, Science, Geography, History and Health. Arts: 80% or greater in Visual Arts, Music, Drama and Dance and Athletics: 80% or greater average in phys-ed and was involved in 4 or more team sports throughout the year.
He was on the cross country team, the volleyball team, track and field, dodgeball, and badminton teams.
We couldn't have been more proud of him and were so happy to celebrate him.
After the formal stuff, the parents were kicked out and the party began. There were cupcakes, pizza, and a candy bar, with music and dancing. Each grad received a t-shirt with all the names of the class on the back and Valley View on the front (courtesy of the parent council). The next day, all the grads wore these shirts and got each other to sign them. Then there was a water balloon fight, so some of the names were smudged, but they had fun. At the end of the day the entire school did a clap out for the grads and those leaving this year. They walked through the halls and after everyone was at the front of the school, the grade 8's got to ring the old school bell. An honour!
School's out for summer!
While the week was a busy one celebrating Brenda's life, was certainly a different feel than all the graduation events. A roller coaster of a week.
Right after school was out, the concert was that weekend, so it was a jump start into summer. We enjoyed some time as a family in Windsor where we went to the Adventure Bay Family Water Park before crossing over into Detroit for the concert. Before the concert we had the day to explore Detroit where we jumped on the people mover and then walked through the Eastern Market where we bought a few things and had lunch. And everyone enjoyed going up and down the oldest freight elevator in Detroit from 1904. After this we headed to Little Caesars arena for the concert.
It really was a great concert where the audience knew the songs which always makes it really fun! So immersive! Amazing!
I am so glad the kids' first concert was such a great experience. So many smiles.
On the way home we stopped at Point Pelee National Park, the southernmost point of the Canadian mainland. We took a short shuttle out to where we could walk to the tip.
When we arrived home, the kids jumped right into swimming lessons for the week.
The following weekend we headed to the Bender annual LAN party for a weekend of gaming fun both online and otherwise. I think the nerf battle was a huge hit! The Benders set up their barn with all kinds of things to move around as two teams tried to take each other out before capturing the flag. Lots of fun!
For Easton the fun didn't stop there. On the Sunday we drove him directly to the bus stop where Camp Can Aqua would pick him up for two full weeks of outdoor adventures. For me this was a long two weeks. For him, he said the first week was slower than the second but it went by really fast with highlights of a two night overnight canoe trip, fireworks, and as much archery as he could fit in from practice to nerf like archery tag. He came home with his 5 year camper award and a few badges. 1. Rugged badge and 2. Sharp Shooter for Archery.
Hadley and I took it fairly casually for these two weeks, enjoying walks by the beach, swinging in the backyard, neighbourhood walks, and she also did some editing on a project she started. Brian travelled to New York for work, so it was pretty quiet for these two weeks.